 Item number SCP-2678 Object Class Keter Special Containment Procedures Mobile Task Force Alpha-42, codename Highway Patrol, are tasked with tracking SCP-2678-1 manifestations on major southeastern highways. This includes sightings of SCP-2678-1 instances by Foundation personnel, sightings of SCP-2678-1 instances by civilians, and any and all abnormal civilian reports of events matching descriptions of SCP-2678 activity. Mobile Task Force Lambda-12, codename Kink Shamers, are tasked with tracking, isolating, documenting, and if possible containing SCP-2678 manifestations as they are discovered. In the event of an SCP-2678-1 manifestation, Mobile Task Forces Alpha-42 and Lambda-12 are to secure the local vicinity of activity, ascertain the location of the primary SCP-2678 anomaly and restrict access to the location. Individuals drawn to SCP-2678 instances, if successfully prevented from entering SCP-2678, are to be administered a Class B amnestic and monitored until anomalous symptoms subside. Description SCP-2678 refers to a phenomenon primarily manifesting in the southeastern United States, typically within the Gulf and South Atlantic regions. Signs of the phenomenon manifesting have, in all cases to date, included the following events. Highway billboards will suddenly, and without warning, change the image being displayed to one of several advertisements for locations or experiences within the region that do not exist. These billboards often use terminology suggesting a vacation destination or scenic locale, and are typically found to be class 4 visual cognitohazards with an unknown amnemic effect on observers. Individuals encountering instances of these billboards, classified as SCP-2678-A, will be compelled to pull their vehicle to the side of the road and exit it, and begin traversing to the manifestation of SCP-2678-1. The entrance to a local structure, usually one that is dilapidated or otherwise derelict and in disrepair, will become an access point for a spatial distortion. Individuals entering through this access point will then be within an SCP-2678 instance itself. SCP-2678 manifests as the interior of a massive, ruined cathedral, the remaining walls and ceiling of which are covered in unknown religious iconography. The interior of SCP-2678 appears to be an entirely different physical location than its respective access points. For this reason, it is unknown if SCP-2678 is a collective of multiple instances, or only a single instance of the cathedral. There are no apparent exits within the cathedral, aside from the spatial anomaly. This area is visible beyond the collapsed walls of the cathedral is shrouded in thick fog, and is illuminated red due to an unknown light source. The moist air within SCP-2678 is extremely corrosive, and will quickly affect most materials found on Earth, including flesh and bone. In the center of the cathedral within SCP-2678 is a large vertical pit, measuring nearly 30 meters in diameter. Within the pit, roughly 8 meters below the floor of the cathedral is a massive biological entity currently classified as SCP-2678-2, of which only the primary consumption orifice is visible. Individuals entering SCP-2678 are inevitably drawn by anomalous means to the precipice of the pit and into the orifice of the SCP-2678-2 entity, where they are then swallowed whole. A full description of the SCP-2678-2 entity is difficult to obtain due in part to its location beneath the cathedral within SCP-2678, and in part to the powerful cognitohazardous effects it has on human beings within the anomaly. Video recovered from remote drones has captured little outside of the large orifice of the entity, which is dissimilar to any other organism known to exist. For all intents and purposes, SCP-2678-2 appears to be a single, long, constricting tube of flesh, coated in flagellum-like structures designed to move consumed materials further into the entity and toward an undefined location or organ. Beyond the primary orifice of SCP-2678-2, little is known about the status of individuals allowed to remain within SCP-2678. Information collected by test subjects shows that individuals experience severe hallucinations and changes in behavior, likely due to the interaction between their own bodies and the foreign biology of the SCP-2678-2 entity. Information is shown that affected persons experience the following symptoms upon entering SCP-2678 and later SCP-2678-2. Minor increased lethargy. Minor increased sensitivity to light. Minor decreased alertness to surroundings. Minor decreased auditory and visual perceptiveness. Major increased tactile perceptiveness. Major increased libido. Major increased body temperature. Further research into the biological and psychological effects of direct exposure to SCP-2678-2 is ongoing. History Between 1972 and 1975, 23 individuals between the ages of 18 and 63 disappeared in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. These disappearances were unique in that the vehicles the individuals had been driving at the time of their disappearance were left by the side of the road, as if they had been parked before being abandoned completely. These investigators within these states were unable to locate the missing individuals or any information pertaining to their whereabouts, and the cases were closed. In 1993, after several more disappearances in the previous decade, a report surfaced of an individual who had been a passenger in a car driven by an affected person. The individual stated that the driver had made a comment about a strange billboard shortly before pulling the car to the side of the road, disembarking, and then disappearing into the tree line by the highway. The passenger then followed the individual to an abandoned, overgrown building, but was unable to locate the affected person after they passed through the threshold of the door. Over the next several months, Foundation personnel maintained regular patrols of major southeastern highways in an attempt to discover the source of the anomalous activity. During one such patrol, personnel discovered a car parked by the side of the road and a hysterical woman attempting to flag them down. The woman claimed her husband had stopped suddenly and walked off a ravine, disappearing into the underbrush below. Personnel attempted to follow the affected individual, but were attacked before they could apprehend him. The attacker was a 34-year-old adult woman wielding a knife. The personnel in question were able to fend off the attacker, but not before the affected man had disappeared into the side door of a dilapidated electric substation. The attacker, identified as Maria Jane Baker, was apprehended and moved to Site 42 for questioning. Addendum 2678-1 Interview Note, the following interview took place between Foundation interrogator Corporal Richard Thornton and the apprehended attacker, Maria Baker. Good afternoon, Ms. Baker. My name is Richard Thornton. I'm the lead on the team investigating you currently and will be conducting this interview. Do you know why you're being held here? Your men were trying to stop that man from becoming whole. I saved his life. Becoming whole? I am only one of many who seek to guide others into divine community. The whole. This man was guided to us by one of the beacons, his soul yearning to be stripped from this misery we suffer. Uh-huh. Ms. Baker, according to our investigators, you've been known to associate with several radical groups identifying as the Fifthist Church. Is this correct? Your titles mean nothing to the collective. Right. Okay. What are these billboards for? Where are these people going? We have yearned for so long to be as one, dancing and twisting and writhing in eternal music with each other. These earthly forms. They are stale. They may have once been able to feel the ecstasy of the sight of the universe, but they have grown cold. Many have shed these bodies and cast themselves into the darkness in desperation seeking anything but the prisons of our lives. Okay, uh, that still doesn't explain anything about what we're doing. Quiet. We did not make the beacons. We only showed it how. Showed it how to reach into our world as it reached into the world before ours and guide the weary to the collective. It? The whole. The answered prayer of the prisoner. We prostrated ourselves before the universe and begged for release. The divine starfish heard our pleas and pulled back the curtain of the material so we could gaze upon it. Within the hole, we are as one. Within the hole, we are unity. We taught it how to light beacons, the billboards in this world so as to guide others into the deep within. When the chosen have been taken, it will be our turn. We go last and then the whole will remake our world. And this is desirous to you. To be consumed, to become one with the collective, it is ecstasy. Can you elaborate on that? On what is there to elaborate? Do you know what ecstasy is? Do you know what it is like to feel release? To feel true, release free from the bindings of not only our painstaking daily lives but our mortal forms? We are meant to be one. We are meant to feel and exist as a collective. Only when all emotion, all feeling, all pleasure and pain alike is concentrated into one mass, one existence can we truly experience solace. We, you and I, here at this table, we are fragments, fragments of a mosaic that could be so much more. I see. And it is your opinion that this mosaic, this collective, can be completed by multiple people jumping into this hole? The hole is more than just a whole, Corporal. It is the end of our suffering and it is the greatest pleasure you will ever feel. That I will ever- Because everyone will be consumed, everyone will become one until the mosaic is complete, the puzzle has been finished and you and everyone in this building and in the world outside has known ecstasy and release. Until it is done. I see. If you have nothing additional to add, this interview is concluded. So we meet again, Corporal. Addendum 2678-2, D-Class Testing Log, Test Log, Manned Exploration 1A, Date, February 22, 2017, Conducted by Agent Terence Shaw, Forward, Following activity and increasing reports of civilian casualties likely linked to SCP-2678, Site 42 Oversight approved D-Class Testing for SCP-2678-2, Overseen by Site 42 Personnel, D-38412 was equipped with a Class 6 Hazardous Exposure Suit as well as instrumentation to test certain properties of SCP-2678-2 and navigational slash communication equipment. Begin Log, 0300 Hours 34 Seconds, February 22, 2017, D-38412, can you hear me? Yes. Alright, can you describe your surroundings? There's a giant, ugh, looks like a church here. Stained glass windows on either side of me. The floor is redstone, there are these pillars. The ceiling is bound to be, what, 50 feet up? Maybe more? It's really big. Alright, can you hear anything? This helmet's blocking some stuff out, but let me listen. It's quiet, but there's this low hum. Well, it's not really a hum, it's like a groaning. This low groaning sound, machinery, I can't be sure. Do you pick it up on the radio? Negative. We do not. It's definitely there. Do you want me to keep walking? I feel like I should keep walking. Affirmative. Keep walking. Continue describing your surroundings. Everything is in this red light, reddish-orange. Like there's this red fog in the way of where I'm going, about 20 feet or several meters out. Yeah, this fog's not up above me. The ceiling's just stained glass, but I can't see out past it. The glass is too opaque. Yeah, low fog in between the pillars and whatnot. The landscape outside, it's just, it's hard to see, but it looks broken. Things jutting up all over the place, crumbled buildings, a lot of red fog. What else do you see? So, it's so hot. So hot. Is it just a suit doing it, do you think? We had some distortion there. Can you repeat that? It's so hot in here, unbelievably hot. Are you sure I'm not going to over here? Can you repeat that? It's so hot. It's bound to be over 120 in here. What happens if I take this suit off? That is not advised. Do not remove your suit. Describe what you see. Yes. Yes. There's an opening here. There's this dip in the floor. Oh. A dip in the floor? Can you please describe further? I, I'm supposed to go in? I, I don't know how to phrase this. I feel a little hot. Right. You estimated the ambient temperature at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, correct? Yeah. Acknowledged, just confirming, please describe the indentation on the floor. Is it composed of stone? How deep do you estimate it? Is the floor broken? That's a dip. It's a hole in the floor. This is it. This is where I'll be satisfied. This is where I was supposed to end up. It looks so, so warm and wet and, and not like out here. It's so burning hot. I'm so burning hot. Please make an effort to speak coherently and describe your surroundings objectively. Can you do that D38412? The teeth. Oh, not many teeth, just so much flash. One meter down. There's the entrance. The orifice. Pink and fleshy. Calm colors. Like this. Not like the awful red world up here. I'm so hot. I'm burning up. I go in. Am I supposed to go in? Yes. Go in. Okay. Okay. I'll, okay. I just have to walk over the edge. Oh god. Okay. Just walk over the edge. Oh, this was what I was waiting for. D38412. Can you hear me clearly? Oh, okay. I can hear you. This is, oh, okay. This is okay. Please describe your surroundings again. Where are you? Did you fall? I'm, I'm in the, I'm in its flesh and inside it, it's, it's wet. Uh, can I take this suit off? Oh, really? I really need to take this off. Negative. Do not remove that suit. I repeat, do not remove your suit. If you do that, you will suffocate immediately. Do not interfere with your suit or your rebreather. Do you understand? Sure. I, I, I just, I'm, I just, I'm fucking surrounded here. It's all around me. I'm inside it. I understand. Continue. Oh, but it's, it's supposed to be inside me too. Oh, that's what I guess I am. You see, I, I have to take this off. I have to let its fluids in here, into me. That's why I came in here, for release. Excuse me. Can you be a little clearer? Can you still hear me? Over. Oh, I can hear you. Your voice in my ear. Can you, can you, can you stop talking for a second or two? I don't really want to listen to you while I, I mean, not here for you, here for it. Them. Us. I want to. I'm going to. Are you there? Can you hear me? Over. I'm sorry you had to hear that. This is so deep. It's all around me. It's leaking in my suit. It's burning my skin is how I was supposed to end up though. This ends the pain, ends the heat, ends the itching, ends the itching. D38412. Do you read me? Over. I hear you. I hear you. I can't talk. I can't find the words. It's, it's in me. It's on me. I feel it pressing all around my body. It's squeezing my ribs and I can't feel my feet. And I feel it wrapping something between my legs. It's pressing up inside my head. Please describe as best you can the sensations you are experiencing as well as your surroundings. Oh, but it's dark. It's so dark. I can't tell if I'm alive or dead here, agent. I don't care. Dark and wet and warm. I think about the other people that came here and they all were saying where we're supposed to be. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. I'm gonna come again. Fuck. Noted. But we still have radio interference. Can you affirm the status of your suit for later research? Oh. Oh. Oh, I'm ready. Marking me is done for. I get it. I get it. Suits melted through. I'm naked. It's burning my skin, tingling, but it's so warm. I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding. I don't care. This is where I was supposed to be. I don't care anymore. Oh my god. Done. Done. I'm almost there again. Just let me be alone. Negative. Do not end this transmission. Remain in contact until SCP-2678-2 compromises the radio equipment. Do you copy? I copy, agent. And I don't fucking, I disagree with you. This isn't how we're supposed to become one. Not with you here and not with this suit. I am meant to be bare. I am taking this thing off and I'm taking the helmet off too. I want to be alone with it for a while. Note, after the events transcribed in Addendum 2, foundation officials studying the logs contacted members of Mobile Task Force Lambda 12, a task force specifically designed to monitor sexuality-based anomalous activity. After discussion with Foundation Psychologists, intervention by Mobile Task Force Lambda 12 was authorized, and all further investigative action into activities within SCP-2678, as well as any SCP-2678-2 testing, is to be handled by that team. Addendum 2678-3. Unmanned Exploration Log 1b. Date. February 24, 2017. Conducted by Agent Rogers, Mobile Task Force Lambda 12. Forward. Following inconclusive D-Class testing, Mobile Task Force Lambda 12 personnel spent two weeks driving on Interstate 74 and 95 in North Carolina, before an SCP-2678-1 instance was spotted on Highway 74-76 near... The driver, Agent Rogers, was allowed to pull over the vehicle, but was restrained to the driver's seat in order to prevent him from reacting to SCP-2678-1's influence and leaving the vehicle. He instead piloted an unmanned drone through the woods by the side of the highway until the drone passed through a threshold within an abandoned building and into an SCP-2678 instance. 1300 hours, 47 minutes, 30 seconds. Drone approaches nearby Wooded Area. No anomalous activity detected. When asked to describe motivations for this course, Agent Rogers is unable to provide a suitable explanation. 1300 hours, 47 minutes, 59 seconds. Drone hesitates momentarily, adjusts course slightly. Agent Rogers is noted to begin to perspire. 1300 hours, 48 minutes, 16 seconds. Delapidated structure is seen in background. Agent Rogers intakes breath sharply, begins to move drone towards the structure. Agent does not respond to questioning during this period. 1300 hours, 50 minutes, 9 seconds. Drone enters threshold and is within SCP-2678. Drone is transmitting audio and visual information in real time to the Task Force's nearby Mobile Reconnaissance Center. 1300 hours, 52 minutes, 45 seconds. Video feed shows drone descending into SCP-2678-2's aperture. 1300 hours, 53 minutes, 13 seconds. Drone descends fully into the orifice of SCP-2678-2. Audio feeds show low background noise in the 50-55 Hertz range. Video feeds show that SCP-2678-2's interior is composed of a flesh-like substance, reddish in color, which is coated with a sheer, transparent liquid. The flesh-like material can be seen slowly pulsating. 1300 hours, 53 minutes, 55 seconds. Drone descends fully into SCP-2678-2's orifice. Rear view camera shows that the outer orifice does not constrict around the drone, and light from the exterior can be seen illuminating the interior of SCP-2678-2. 1300 hours, 54 minutes, 40 seconds. The drone has proceeded roughly an additional 6 meters down SCP-2678-2's length. Movement is restricted by the small diameter of SCP-2678-2's interior. Left and right-side cameras are functioning, but do not transmit a clear picture due to the lack of space between their lenses and the walls of SCP-2678-2. Front-facing camera displays the same flesh-like material on all sides. 1300 hours, 55 minutes, 32 seconds. Front-facing camera displays a change in material. Flesh-like substance is still present, but is overlaid with a matted meshwork of small tendrils, all of which are seen to be individually writhing. What appears to be blood and miscellaneous viscera is caked into some sections of the growths, and is restricting their movement. 1300 hours, 56 minutes, 20 seconds. Drones attached pH meter reads a severely acidic 2.4, as opposed to the near-neutral 6.7 of SCP-2678-2's initial entrance. Front-facing camera shows that the drone is collided with a white object, appearing in later analysis of transmissions to be composed of bone, which is jutting out from the right side of SCP-2678-2's interior. In the area surrounding the visible base of the bone, it is seen that the flesh-like material is leaking a greenish substance, which is dripping in a direction that would be considered upward relative to the drone's position, thus indicating that SCP-2678-2's length has at some point doubled back on itself in the vertical direction. 1300 hours, 58 minutes, 19 seconds. Drone locomotive capabilities fail. It is noted that while the drone appears to continue to move, it is only doing so as a result of the internal anatomy of the SCP-2678 entity. Agent Rogers begins hyperventilating. The agent is moved away from the mobile reconnaissance vehicle for a medical evaluation. Observation of the drone continues. 1300 hours, 59 minutes, 43 seconds. Drone stops suddenly. A loud groaning sound is heard, and then the drone begins to move very quickly. Exterior illumination devices fail. Rear-facing camera fails. Front-facing camera becomes obscured, and then fails. Drone reports significant internal structural damage, likely due to corrosive environment. 1400 hours, 3 minutes, 34 seconds. Audio input registers high-pitched vocalizations ranging from 180 to 200 Hz, overlaid with unintelligible deeper vocalizations ranging from 70 to 110 Hz. Later analysis of vocalizations by Foundation Audio Technicians, coupled with digital enhancement of recordings, indicates the audio in question contains anywhere from 100 to 1300 unique human voices. The exact nature of the vocalizations is difficult to ascertain, though staff audiologists hypothesized in later analysis that the voices seem to be singing. 1400 hours, 4 minutes, 1 second. Front-facing camera briefly activates. Drone is hanging above an open space, dimly illuminated by an unknown source. Below, roughly 7 meters, is a large number of writhing figures. Features cannot be made out. A thick white brackish fluid covers the mass. Audio input registers same high-pitched vocalizations as before, only considerably louder and growing in volume. For a brief moment, the vocalizations are drowned out by another loud groaning sound. Something below the mass opens and the figures fall away. The vocalizations decrease in volume until they disappear entirely. There is a rushing sound behind the drone, which is struck by something and falls. Front-facing camera fails. Audio systems fail. Communication systems fail. Drone is offline. Addendum 2678-4, D-Class Testing Log 2. Test log, manned exploration 2A. Date, February 28, 2017. Conducted by Agent Aaron Van Pelt. Forward, the following log was conducted to purposefully expose a D-class subject to the interior of SCP-2678 in order to ascertain additional information about the religious iconography contained within. Due to the unexpected outcome of this test, the mission was not completed in full. Begin log, 2100 hours, 14 minutes, 16 seconds. February 28, 2017. Subject enters previously discovered SCP-2678 spatial anomaly. Foundation agents under the direction of Agent Van Pelt are stationed just outside the anomaly. The subject is equipped with all of the equipment supplied to the subject in the previous D-class test. Can you hear us? Yeah. I will tell you right now, something doesn't feel right. Come again? On my way here, there is this feeling like, I don't know, like I was going to feel something incredible. I could feel to my fucking bones, man, but that's gone. There's something else in there now. Noted. Can you describe your surroundings? Isn't there supposed to be a church or something in here? There isn't. D58391, activate your front-facing camera. Subject activates front-facing camera. Image initially comes through very dark. Subject activates front-facing light, illuminating the space in front of them. Beneath their feet is a slick stone floor. The nearest wall is also made of stone. The ceiling is very low. Off to the left is a drop-off, past which the subject's light does not immediately reach. What are you seeing? Oh my god, I just, oh, something smells so... It's like sewage, but worse, Jesus fucking... Wipe your mouth and put on the helmet. Turn your air tanks on, you'll be alright. Take a few deep breaths. Subject complies. A moment passes, then subject responds. Okay, god. I'm in like, it's a tunnel. The ceiling is really low. You can't see anything in here for shit. The ground is really slick. There's something covering it that's kind of white. It's some liquid, I don't know. There, uh, it's like a canal or something to my left. I think this is a sewer. It looks like an old-timey sewer. It's fucking disgusting. Can you get closer to the canal? Do I have to? Yeah, you do. Alright, hang on. Like, it's still really dark. It's sort of hard to see, but it's just a really thick, slow-moving liquid. It looks like sewage. It stings too. Even through this helmet, I can still... shit. Where does the canal lead? There's... it extends down in either direction. I can't tell how far. I hear something this way. You can't see anything? Not really. Proceed down there. Keep us posted. Fine. D58391 is silent for a short time. I don't feel well. How do you mean? I feel woozy. There's something wrong. Like, fuck! I just slipped. It's really slick, and I can't see. And the smell is making me nauseous. There's something wrong about all of this. I understand. We'll try to get you out as soon as we can. We just need to see where this tunnel leads. This is new to us, too. I get that. I mean, I know you guys are all about science and stuff, but you're not the ones down in here, right? I don't blame you, really. I wouldn't want to be. I'm getting close. The smell is really strong, and there's more of that stuff on the ground. Everything is slick and sliming. Jesus fucking Christ. D58391 proceeds for a short period of time. The sound of flowing liquid can be heard in the background. D58391 makes no note of this, though it is noted that the subject's heart rate has increased significantly. There's a bend here. What's around it? I don't want to go around it. I got a really bad feeling about this. We talked about this. You need to go around that corner. We just need to see what's in there, and then you can come back. You promise? Of course. Alright, hang on. The walls are gone. I think this is a big room. I can hear something moving. The canal leads to this basin. It's big. It's swirling, and I... D58391? Up above me. It's through the ceiling, like it broke through. It's a huge, plushie... I don't know, but stuff is coming out of it. The stuff in the canal, it's like waste. I feel dizzy. I can't hang on. Are you alright? There's so much of the stuff coming out of it. It's like a waterfall of shit and fluids. Oh, so, God, I feel sick. Hang on. I can't come back. I can't do this. Something is fucking with my head. Noted. Do you still have traction? Fuck, I'm... oh, I wish you hadn't said that. The floor is... tilting. Are you still upright? Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Microphone reads only static, yelling, and miscellaneous scraping and background noise for a period of 15 seconds. D58391, do you read me? I'm in a... I'm in a... a little river of fucking... oh, there's body parts everywhere. Describe your surroundings. It's... it's hanging. Hanging on the edge, right beneath me, and my head is gonna slip. Oh, God, you're all screaming. Every single phase is looking up at me, and... Oh, staring! They're fucking eyes! Please, please come pull me up. Come pull me up. Please, please come pull me up. Come pull me up. And blood and white thick hands and arms. They're falling apart, and they're trying to climb up, and... Please come get me. Come, please come for me. Please come, oh my God. Scraping and yelling is heard. Microphone winds and disconnects. No further output is detected. Test is concluded. Additional notes. Further D-class testing is pending approval.